Top 10 business headlines: Quota Bill, DMart Q3 net, UDAY scheme, and more

1. President signs Bill giving reservation to general category poor into law

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday signed into law the 124th Constitution Amendment Bill, which provides for 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in the general category. With this, the total percentage of reservation will go up to 60, surpassing the 50 per cent ceiling prescribed by the Supreme Court.

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The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday officially announced their tie-up in Uttar Pradesh, with the two former rivals agreeing to share 38 seats each in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and kept the Congress out of the alliance. The two parties, however, will not field any candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, respectively. Read on

Italy’s top oil producer and Oman’s energy minister predict the latest oil rebound will stick. Prices are up more than 20 percent since hitting an almost two-year low in December, enough to alter OPEC+ rhetoric from reassuring investors that it will cut output to taking credit for the rebound, and in the case of Oman, forecasting where oil will trade for the year.

4. 10% quota for general category poor will boost new India's confidence: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the move by his government to provide 10 per cent reservation in education and jobs for the general category poor would enhance the confidence of ‘new India’. He clarified that the existing quota policy for the scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) would remain as strong as it was, and accused opposition parties of trying to light a fire of discontent by spreading confusion over the issue. Read more

Avenue Supermarts, which operates the DMart chain of stores in India, reported its slowest net profit growth in eight quarters as the company grappled with growing competition in grocery retail.

For the three months ending December 31, 2018, the company on Saturday reported a 2.1 per cent net profit growth only, touching Rs 257 crore — lower than the Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 295 crore. Click to read more

In a startling revelation, a retired Supreme Court Judge who supervised the CVC enquiry, which led to Alok Verma's removal as the CBI chief said there was no evidence of corruption by the former head of the investigating agency, according to a report in The Indian Express. Justice A K Patnaik is said to have remarked that the decision to remove Verma was ''hasty''. Alok Verma submitted his resignation from service on Friday, a day after he was removed from his post by a high powered committee a couple of days after the Supreme Court reinstated him. Read on

Government-owned Bharat Heavy Enterprises Limited (BHEL) has moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging the decision of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Monnet Ispat & Energy to assign nil liquidation value to operational creditors and the approval of the resolution plan based on the same by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai. The NCLAT has agreed to hear BHEL on the issue and issued notice to the company and JSW Steel, which had emerged as the highest bidder for Monnet Ispat. It will next hear the matter on February 8. More details here

8. India to receive $300 million in aid from World Bank for EV push

The World Bank has committed to provide India funds worth $300 million to aid its energy efficiency programme, Moneycontrol has reported. The move will help the government set up the requisite infrastructure to push forward its ambition of expanding electric mobility in the country.

9. NCLT bars Gammon’s Abhijit Rajan from leaving India

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has asked Abhijit Rajan, promoter and non-executive chairman of infrastructure construction firm Gammon India Ltd, and four other directors of the company not to leave the country without obtaining the permission of the authorities concerned, Livemint reported.

10. States set to miss UDAY target; here are the 3 major hurdles that lie ahead

States' electricity discoms are set to miss their target of paring down aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses to 15 percent by the end of the current fiscal under the government's flagship scheme Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), according to a report in MoneyControl.